About Us

"We're here in Berrings for four generations. My great grandfather was Pat Ring from Codrum and Tierbeg near Macroom. They also had property in Manchester and Liverpool. The name changed from Ring to Reen through a family dispute. Pat became secretary to Richard Barter at the world renowned Turkish Baths at St. Ann's Hill in Blarney. He became a merchant after that and had the Byrne's Mills in Blarney where he manufactured meal and flour. He was known as a general merchant and served the farming community. In the year of the Famine, things went against him and he was evicted. His wife Margaret though had property in Berrings, where the O'Mahony family owned 400 acres on the Berrings Estate. The Reens moved to Berrings. Pat Ring ran the pub, the post office and was the

land agent. Local people paid him the rent, which was sent to Dublin Castle. The pub- store catered for the local farming community. We sold products such as bottles of stout, coal, oil, tobacco and cigarettes. All kind of dealers would call in on route to Coachford Fair and Dripsey Woollen Mills. I remember the Youngs of Young's Mills in Clonmoyle who also had premises in Crosses Green in the City calling in for a drink on route or travelling home from the city. People would send potatoes, turnips, agricultural produce to the city via Reens. The horse and cart was the king of transport. Pigs were sold in the Farmer's Union in Ballincollig. To help with the sales, weighing scales were on the premises. One could get the paper, which would have information such as births and deaths. The post office was the focus of attention. Old age pensions could be got and dog and bull licences could be bought. The Post Office had a phone and switchboard that serviced the community. The post office provided a day and night service if people wanted a doctor or vet, whatever the case may be. Telegrams were a big part of the Post Office - there were two postmen in the post office - mail would come at 6a.m. and be delivered by pushbike after it was sorted. Mail for sending would be sent to Cork every evening. Electricity came to Berrings on the early 1950s. It was one of the first areas in the county to get it. Lighting for the most part prior to that

was by gas light. There were also 'tilly' lamps on the counter. You would fill it with oil. You would pump it with a small pump and the mantle would light up. We also had oil lamps with a globe. We sold parafin oil. We had a primace to boil a kettle. We got them from Wickhams in Cork on Merchant's Quay. They supplied rural people with household items such as kettles and lamps. John Daly's on Kyrl's Quay supplied us with porter, bottled beer. Murphy's Brewery supplied us with kegs for years. We did alot of business as well with Ormond's Distillery in Bandon and John Reardon's on Washington Street. Reardons supplied us with tea, coffee and

sugar. They brought out chests of tea. We got cigarettes from T.J. O'Leary on Washington Street. Woodford and Bourne were, I suppose, the cash and carry of their day for publicans. They were based on Sheare Street but had their main shop for general customers on Daunt's Square at the top of St. Patrick's Stree There were seven children in my grandfather's family. Due to the social and economic conditions over a hundred years ago all of them emigrated. The five boys went to the United States. William went to Chicago and became an architect and sculptor. Johnny went to New Hampshire and was in the property business. Jim went to New York and had a liquor store. My grandfather Patsy had a pub business in Jersey City but returned to Berrings Pub on his father's death. He married Kate Forrest from the nearby townland of Gurteen. Of the two girls, Julia had a hotel business in India with her husband O'Hurley from Kilmurray, Berrings who served in the British army in India. Mini married into the Hawkes family from Bandon and went to New York, where her family were involved in the liquor store trade.

My father was Jeremiah Reen. He was married to Hannah Herlihy from Coolea. They had two children, Catherine and I. My father was the station master at Peake on the'Hook and Eye Line' [Cork-Muskerry Tram] for many years. He was able to organise goods to be sent for the pub on the train to Gurteen or the Peake stops. He worked in the railways for 35- 40 years. As a teenager he worked at Eustice's Timber and Slate merchants on Leitrim Street opposite Murphy's Brewery for a year [building there till early1960s]. At the age of 16 he got a job as station master at the Cork-Muskerry terminus, now Jury's Hotel on Western Road. He lived in a lodge in nearby Wood Street. He got up at 5a.m. each morning and opened the gates. He had a narrow escape during the Irish Troubles. He was arrested and thought to be a man on the run from the British authorities who worked on the train. My father was lucky as the man on the run had his wages awaiting collection. Security was tight as ammunition was being transported illegally on the rail lines in County Cork providing arms to the Irish Republican Army. After the closure of the Cork Muskerry Tram, my dad Jeremiah worked in Wexford for a time but eventually came back to Berrings to run the pub-store-post office. I [Pat] was born in 1953. I went to Berrings National School in 1958 (till 1966). My teachers were Pat Carroll, Mrs. Herlihy and Madge Collins. It was a two roomed building with boys taught on one side and the girls on the other. My father died in 1965 and I was sent to boarding school first in Trabolgan in East Cork and then to Colaiste åosagain in Ballyvourney. I went on to study at Coláiste An Spioraid Naoimh in Bishopstown. I went to technical school in Coachford and for a time attended the Radio and Electronic Institute in Tivoli. In the 1970s, I came back to the family post office and bar to tend to it with my mother. But in the 1980s, rural life was heavily affected by the economic downturn, which resulted in the pub being closed in 1985. The pub was re-opened and refurbished in 1994. It closed shortly afterwards and I remain its owner. There are enormous long family ties with the pub". 

Crossroads intrigue me. I'm always wondering what's down the roads I choose not to travel. However, in recent times in western Inniscarra, I find myself seeing the other roads and seeing how they are all connected up. In a sense, it seems that each place I encounter is part of a network that connects places together in a chain. Berrings Cross is a crossroads of contrasts. I enjoy looking at contrasts, seeing a satellite on the side of an old building. I think change and continuity are important threads for a living settlement. At Berrings Cross, Reen's Bar, the local church, the school and modern housing are signposts of the past, present and future. On the southern side of the cross, the modern housing is brand new and stands out untarnished by time. They seem to be waiting for a past. They seem to await the impact of memories. Their drystone stone walling offers attempts by us citizens of County Cork to integrate ourselves into the countryside seemlessly. Across the road, Berrings Hall stands as the contrast to the new, a tin ruinous structure but with a rich past. Berrings hall was a parochial dwelling. It belonged to the Parish for the people of the parish. It was known far and wide. Dances were held weekly in decades gone by, some in preparation for the annual Farmer's Union ball in the Arcadia in Cork. Master Driscoll, the local national school teacher in the 1950s, held drama classes and public speaking competitions there. It was a tremendous meeting place. Buses came out from the city. Reens Bar became popular as a consequence. At Berrings Cross in the 1860s there was a forge and the site of the old forge is called the Forge yard. The smith who worked there was named Collins. When he died, his family left the district and little is known of them. It would appear that the old forge was a meeting place for the local boys, where many a prank was played and story told. The forge in the twentieth century was re-opened by Timmy Lane. Timmy Lane's Aunt Margaret Mary Lane worked in Leicesters Chemist for many years (now Quill's, on St. Patrick Street). Local people got their horses shod at Berrings Cross forge. Travelling shows stopped at the site and tended to the shoes of their horses. The forge, Pat Reen of Berrings, remembers was a hive of activity. Cooking utensils were made there such as tin dishes for baking. Gates were created for the farming community. There was a second forge owned by the Cooneys in Ballyshonin, a mile east of Berrings next to a creamery. On the northern side of the cross are the ruins of the second Berrings National School with a plaque on the wall stating '1846-1979'. Inside the building, the only memories left are a map of the world dated to 1961. Looking at it, it shows how much the countries of the world have been re-jigged in more recent years. One can explore Education in Berrings back three hundred years with the help of the Irish Folklore Commission in 1938. In the local townland of Gortatrea, in the 1730s, there was a low thatched building. The old teacher who taught there was remarkable for the beautiful style of writing. His name was Looney. His pupils many of them came from places five mile distant from the school. There were no desks or benches but the pupils some grown me sat on large stones and on their knees placed large copies or sheets, which acted as benches. The ordinary subjects, writing, composition, grammar, geography and mathematics was apparently taught there. It was passed down that both languages, English and Irish were taught there. As far as was known, the school continued for many years and continued working during summer and winter months. Each pupil paid a certain sum per quarter to the teacher. At Berrings Cross, was another old ruin part of which was at one time used as a school. It was conducted on the same lines as the old school at Gortatrea but of an earlier date. The teacher who taught in the school was named Pat Herlihy and when a new school was built at Berrings in 1846, this same teacher was appointed principal teacher of it. A school was held at the home now occupied by John Hennessy of Kilblaffer, Berrings. This school, which was in the house or barn, was more or less for the Hennessy family and in the immediate neighbours and was held during the winter months only. The modern school is a late twentieth century construct.The church of Berrings was built c.1808 on or near the site of the church, which did duty as a church before that time. That older church was a long low building with a slate roof. Fr. Lane, a native of Inniscarra Parish was involved in building the present church. Local man Eugene Lane in the 1938 Folklore study of Berrings area narrated a great story about the priest. When a young student, Lane walked to Cork City from Cloghroe, a distance of seven miles. As he was going to the city one morning along the Lee Road or The Asylum Road before the present Carrigrohane Straight Road, he saw before him in the road a poor man travelling barefooted while his boots hung from his shoulders. As the road was bad and wet the poor man was keeping to the dried portion of it. Suddenly a horseman appeared coming from the City direction. He too was keeping to the dry portion of the road and would not leave it with the result that he drove his horse right against the poor man and knocked him to the ground and rode on as if nothing had occurred. Young Lane who saw what had happened prepared to meet the bully of a horseman as he approached apparently intent in treating him as he treated the poor feet man. The horseman held the road as did young Lane but just as he was almost directly on him, Lane side stepped and with one blow of a walking stick which he carried he brough the horseman flat on the ground where he gave him a few further severe blows. Young Lane then jumped the fence, went across the fields as fast as he could and did not enter the city that day as he was aware that the horseman he had knocked down was 'gentleman of importance'. Next day yeoman were scouring the countryside in search of the young man who had knocked down the high sheriff of Cork whom young Lane had knocked down. Young Lane disappeared to France and returned after some years as Father Lane!

To be continued…